Pan fried rainbow trout with a tarragon tomato sauce

Pan fried rainbow trout with a tomato - tarragon - garlic sauce served on basmati rice.

The frozen rainbow trout comes from Peru where it is an invasive species. This is one fish that can be consumed without guilt. It's delicious to eat and quick and easy to cook. Love it.

For this recipe, simply rinse the defrosted fillets in cold, running water, pat dry, salt and carefully place, skin side down, in a medium hot fry pan with a little hot olive oil. If you aren't concerned with cholesterol, a pat or two of butter adds flavour.

Although it is not demanded, I like squeezing some lemon juice over the flesh side, not the skin side, of the fillets before frying. Four, nor more than five, minutes of sizzling per side is enough. Don't overcook.

The rice is basmati. It is possibly my favourite. It makes a tasty and contrasting bed for the fish. Use a quarter cup of rice to half a cup of rapidly boiling water for each serving. After adding the rice to the boiling water, stir to break up any clumps, put a lid on the pot and turn the heat down to a low simmer. Check after fifteen minutes. You don't want the rice sticking to the pot. When done, only a few more minutes, put the lid on the pot and set aside. This is ready to serve.

The asparagus takes a minute on high in a microwave oven. If it's really fresh, don't worry about peeling except for possibly the bottom three inches of each stalk and only if the stalks appear thick and tough.

I pan-fried some cherry tomatoes in a small fry pan with a little olive oil to serve over the fish at the table. The tomatoes add bursts of flavour. I added some pistachios to the pan at the last moment. I wanted the nuts to be hot like the rest of the meal but I didn't want the nuts to burn. Heat the tomatoes and nuts after the fish has been flipped. With luck all will come together at the same moment.

The sauce was made from a couple of cloves of minced garlic, about an eighth of a cup of coarsely chopped sun dried tomatoes, a dozen halved cherry tomatoes, two ounces of milk and some chopped, fresh tarragon to taste. I used the leaves from about five small sprigs.

These sun dried tomatoes are really fine.

The chopped garlic sizzled for about thirty seconds in some hot olive oil at the bottom of a small pot. Before it could even turn golden, the chopped sun dried tomatoes were added. Everything was stirred to prevent food sticking to the pot.

After about a minute, I added the halved cherry tomatoes and kept stirring. The tomatoes began breaking down and all began to bubble. I added the milk and then blended all with my KitchenAid hand blender. Don't over blend. You want some chunkiness.

Finally, I added the chopped tarragon and turned down the heat. You must taste to determine if more tarragon or salt is needed.

I made the sauce earlier in the day and then reheated it at dinner time. The rice was put on the stove about fifteen minutes before the fish was slid into the fry pan. This made putting dinner together quite easy.

I waited until I had flipped over the fish, then I heated about ten cherry tomatoes in a little hot oil in a small fry pan. Shaking the pan kept the little tomatoes rolling and heating evenly. Before serving the rice, drop the pistachios into the pan with the cherry tomatoes.

Now assemble the meal. Spoon some rice onto each plate, lay a rainbow trout fillet onto the rice, drizzle a little sauce on each fillet, add the asparagus and finally spoon some hot, cherry tomatoes and pistachio nuts onto the fish. You may find you have to add some more salt and pepper at the table.

Ingredient List - for two

2 thawed rainbow trout fillets about six ounces each
1 lemon
Possibly 2 pats of butter depending upon dietary demands
olive oil, use your discretion as to amount
1/2 cup of dry, basmati rice
1 cup of cold water
8 stalks of asparagus
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1/8th cup of sun dried tomatoes coarsely chopped
10 gm of pistachio nuts and if large, halved
2 dozen or so of cherry tomatoes - a dozen halved, the remainder left whole
2 oz. of 1% or 2% milk
5 small sprigs of tarragon - leaves only - coarsely chopped
salt and pepper